In a tragic turn of events, the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School shooting from 2018 has cast another shadow, claiming a life seven years after the horrific incident. Donovan Metayer, a survivor of the Parkland, Florida massacre, has died by suicide, his family recently announced.
Metayer was a senior at the high school on that fateful Valentine’s Day when Nikolas Cruz, a former student, unleashed a deadly attack, taking the lives of 14 students and three staff members, while injuring 17 others with an assault rifle. Although Donovan emerged physically unharmed from the chaos, the emotional scars ran deep.
His family revealed that the trauma from the shooting haunted him long after he graduated. The weight of losing classmates altered the trajectory of his life in profound ways. Following the incident, Donovan began to pull away, battling depression, guilt, and emotional turbulence. His family described him as a vibrant individual whose light dimmed into long stretches of isolation.
Once a “radiant child,” Donovan was known for his exceptional intellect and infectious sense of humor, qualities that made him stand out academically and socially. However, the decline in his mental health overshadowed his ambitions of pursuing a college education and a career in computer science. He faced numerous hospitalizations due to suicidal thoughts, as shared by his family.
In a heartfelt tribute on social media, Nancy Metayer Bowen, Donovan’s sister, expressed her grief over losing her “baby brother.” She wrote about his “seven-year battle with schizophrenia,” acknowledging the immense challenges he faced following the traumatic events at Parkland.
Marjory Stoneman Douglas
Wilfredo Lee/AP Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. (Wilfredo Lee/AP)
Nancy Metayer Bowen mourned her “baby brother” in a social media post on Saturday, saying he “committed suicide after a seven-year battle with schizophrenia.”
The family will use some of the money raised to establish a fund at Henderson Clinic, where Donovan had most recently been treated, to help people struggling mentally who face barriers to care.
In 2021, Donovan had been blocked from buying a firearm under the state’s Baker Act, which allows for a person to be held temporarily for mental health reasons. But he bought a gun as soon as the order expired, his family said, and “a week later, he would use that same handgun to take his own life in our family home.”
Donovan was the third Parkland survivor to commit suicide. Sydney Aiello killed herself a year after the massacre, at age 19, and days later, 16-year-old sophomore Calvin Desir did the same.
With News Wire Services
